As any prominent prize-giving event approaches, there’s always a clamor for the addition additional classifications to honor underappreciated efforts and delight the hearts of followers with niche passions.
My colleague made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are board games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front just as with other single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal remains most pressing and important of all. This is the request: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it’s very subjective, and it will always generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. But it is an unavoidable compromise in the world of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these award types successfully include numerous genres, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears to put them. Consider three of outstanding current releases, all very different: the architectural riddles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. What category would fit them between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens outstanding logic titles published annually lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, if they accidentally match award groups including Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked for anything in 2014
- A different innovative game was excluded in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked that year
- Only a few brain-teasers scraped into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often modest productions, however the design behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as the most-played games worldwide maintaining this status for many years.
The famous puzzle experience competes with popular creative games competing to become most purchased experience; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these represent titles without proper classification in important events. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge interactive creation, producing among the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Just like film action specialists, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait 35 years.
